Letters to the Editor 4/13

Think of libraries

When you visit your local library branch to celebrate National Library Week, April 11-17, think about all the hours your library is not open.

Library budgets are hurting, and open hours have been cut. The Foundation for San Luis Obispo County Public Libraries is honoring our outstanding 15-branch county public library system, its staff, volunteers and “Friends” groups by working to enhance access to resources during those hours when local libraries are closed.

The foundation’s “Giving Wings to Knowledge” campaign will help support wireless Internet connections, magazines and newspapers online, downloadable audiobooks, the Bookmobile, home delivery and more. Please consider a generous donation.

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Assault on freedoms

I just learned that effective in May 2010, smoking on public sidewalks and streets in San Luis Obispo will be banned (“SLO to ban smoking in public areas,” April 7).

It seems that the use of this legal product is under constant assault by the government. This is still America, tobacco use is still legal in this country, and tobacco is a highly taxed and highly regulated commodity.

Frequently, when politicians need more of our hard-earned tax dollars, they want to increase the tax on tobacco products.

But on a nearly monthly basis, the use of this product is restricted and in some areas, it’s almost completely banned.

For the purpose of this letter, whether you smoke or not is irrelevant. My main complaint is that we are supposed to live in a free society and the use of a legal substance in pub-lic was just banned. The mindset is to tax it again and again, yet don’t we smokers pay more than our fair share of taxes and don’t those same taxes pay for the very streets we are now banned from using our legal product on?

Age difference

I have been following the Smith case with interest and amusement, as I met my own husband while I was still a teenager.

Our age difference is more than 25 years. If the girl’s home life was anything like mine, then perhaps the stability of someone older could help her achieve a sense of balance and healing, as it did for me.

Has it always been easy? No. Have there been bumps in the road? Of course. But barring a pattern of what you might call “predatory” behavior with other young girls, I think it should be considered at least possible that Smith genuinely cares for the girl.

So long as the girl is allowed to grow a sense of independence and self in the relationship, it’s not a problem. And it’s possible the girl may “outgrow” him eventually, but then again, she may not. In a few months my husband and I will have been together 18 years ... haven’t outgrown him yet.